Be honest about the possibility of a future in which fewer people work

Be honest about the possibility of a future in which fewer people work

Be honest about the possibility of a future in which fewer people work

Posted by James Maclaurin17sc on November 27, 2016

David Autor's "Why are there still so many jobs" (Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol 29 (3), pp 3-30) sets out evidence that more and more people in developed countries are ending up in low paid low skilled jobs. This is partly a result of 'middle-class' jobs being demolished due to current economic attitudes about the virtue of decreasing government debt via efficience/austerity, stimulating economies via tax cuts etc. It is also partly due to workplace automation. Current global political upheaval might change prevailing economic attitudes but workplace automation is only going to become more pervasive. While other political parties focus on short term solutions (mostly to do with training and education), TOP should be thinking about the likely medium term proposect of a world in which many people don't work. If we just let this slide, we will end up with more and more angry working poor prepared to vote for anyone who claims they will change 'the system'. So TOP needs to think carefully about NZ could work politically, philosophically, economically if many kiwi's didn't have to work. Universal Basic Income is obviously a good start, but it's only a start.